Woodrow Wilson - The KKK President?

[Shane Costello]

A recent article in "Reason" online made some interesting claims about Woodrow Wilson. While most people would have remembered Woodrow Wilson as an educational reformer and internationalist, this article claims that he was also a racist and segregationist, and integrated work places in the District of Columbia were segregated during his presidency.

I find this surprising. Can anyone shed more light on the matter?

 

[Malachi151]

A recent article in "Reason" online made some interesting claims about Woodrow Wilson. While most people would have remembered Woodrow Wilson as an educational reformer and internationalist, this article claims that he was also a racist and segregationist, and integrated work places in the District of Columbia were segregated during his presidency.

I find this surprising. Can anyone shed more light on the matter?

Yes, that's all true. He also commended the movie Birth of a Nation.

"It is like writing history with Lightning. And my only regret is that it is all so terribly true."
-- Woodrow Wilson, after viewing the pro-KKK movie Birth of a Nation

http://www.hereticalideas.com/archives/001004.html

Its hard to understand Wilson in our time and also hard to understand him within the dualistic framework of good vs evil, right vs wrong, etc.

In many ways Wilson was an excellent president a progressive and a reformer, in others he was not, but that's really common for many "great" men of his time, such as Henry Ford as well.

Most of the big names from the early 20th century were all extremely racist, they got where they were because the whole country was mostly racist. The KKK was at its peak in the 1920s with over 4 million members.

 

[Mike B.]

A recent article in "Reason" online made some interesting claims about Woodrow Wilson. While most people would have remembered Woodrow Wilson as an educational reformer and internationalist, this article claims that he was also a racist and segregationist, and integrated work places in the District of Columbia were segregated during his presidency.

I find this surprising. Can anyone shed more light on the matter?

Hi Shane,

Indeed Wilson was horrendous in this regard. He was originally a Southern Virginia Democrat although he was elected as Gov. of New Jersey.

His wife was very much behind the move to segregation, and he gave into her every whim on this.

Wilson was the first southern Democrat elected since the Civil War and thus did away with whatever meager progress had been made by the previous Republican administrations.

You are right about his image. I think in the past historians didn't consider matters of race important, so he looked like a progressive. However, his reputation has taken a large number of hits since then.

The Schlessinger poll of Presidents by major historians always had him in the top five with Lincoln, Washington, FDR, and Jefferson.

I wonder how he would do now...

 

[corplinx]

His views weren't that extreme for the time period he lived in. I think people have a problem of perspective when looking back at presidents (Lincoln, Washington, Jefferson, Wilson) from a modern perspective.

 

[livius drusus]

His views weren't that extreme for the time period he lived in. I think people have a problem of perspective when looking back at presidents (Lincoln, Washington, Jefferson, Wilson) from a modern perspective.

That is a copout, I'm afraid. Woodrow Wilson segregated federal buildings that had been integrated since Reconstruction. His ideas may not have been extreme in an era that featured the a KKK whose membership was counted in the millions, but his implementation of them was extraordinary. He didn't just accept the status quo. He turned back the clock.

 

[Mike B.]

That is a copout, I'm afraid. Woodrow Wilson segregated federal buildings that had been integrated since Reconstruction. His ideas may not have been extreme in an era that featured the a KKK whose membership was counted in the millions, but his implementation of them was extraordinary. He didn't just accept the status quo. He turned back the clock.

Well said...

I agree with Corplinx that "presentism" often affects historical judgements. However, Wilson as you said turned back the clock.

 

[Malachi151]

Wilson was an Ivy Leaguer. I dont think its fair to judge him as a whole based on this one issues, but certianly it is an important element and he ceritnaly had a negative impact in that regard. Parts of his policy were good, parts were bad. He was definately for protecting the little guy... as long as the little guy was white.

He was a Nobel Prize winnign economist and established taxation policy that was much needed and helped make the system more fair for everyone, but on the issue of race he was a definate supremacist. His vision of America was definately one dominated by whites. He stood up to corruption and helped establish the League of Nations, but then our Congress refused to join it.

He wanted America to have a more international role and be a larger part of the internaitonal community.

 

[livius drusus]

He wanted America to have a more international role and be a larger part of the internaitonal community.

Of the white international community. The fact that his high principles did not extend to nonwhites is a rather large blot even setting the specific wrongs of his segregation by executive order. Only one of his 14 Points covered the League of Nations, but fully half of the 14 dealt with the right to national self-determination of peoples under colonial or imperial rule.

From the speech:

We have spoken now, surely, in terms too concrete to admit of any further doubt or question. An evident principle runs through the whole program I have outlined. It is the principle of justice to all peoples and nationalities, and their right to live on equal terms of liberty and safety with one another, whether they be strong or weak.

The fact that underlying these fine sentiments was an unstated requirement of whiteness makes them painfully ironic.

 

[7th sextile]

Malachi: Wilson was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

I don't think there was a prize in Economics till the 60's/70's.

 

[Shane Costello]

Interesting points all. I'd have to agree that the "man of his time" defence doesn't really wash, since Wilson's racial policies were regressive and not merely a maintainence of the status quo. I find it hard to reconcile this with Wilson's reformist streak, particularly when he was President of Princeton and governor of New Jersey. I suppose it reminds us that human nature is rarely ever that simple.

 

[Cain]

_Lies My Teacher Told Me_ analyzes how and why Wilson's racism (and Hellen Keller's socialism) is missing from American history textbooks. Good book.